Advanced Energy Perspectives

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.

Residential energy efficiency improvements include a number of technologies and building systems that reduce energy use in homes, while still delivering the same or superior service. This includes efficient consumption of energy in appliances and other devices (e.g., lighting, Energy Star TVs, computers and refrigerators), and efficient heating and cooling equipment (e.g., natural gas condensing boilers, heat pump water heaters, and high-efficiency air conditioners). It also includes application of various building materials and systems that reduce energy demand, including efficient windows, wall and attic insulation, air sealing, building controls (e.g., programmable thermostats, use of heating and cooling zones, smart appliances that respond to price and demand signals), wrapping of hot water/steam pipes with insulation, smart power strips that shut off devices to avoid standby losses, and alternatives to air conditioning such as whole-house fans. Some water-saving technologies (e.g., faucet aerators, low-flow showerheads, efficient dishwashers) also reduce energy used for water heating.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.

 Advanced lighting technology has quickly expanded to include light-emitting diodes (LEDs), energy-saving incandescent bulbs, and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Solid-state lighting, including LEDs, is in the process of transforming the lighting and electronic display markets, offering mercury-free, long-lasting, extremely efficient, digitally controllable lighting that can be used in residential and commercial settings.[1] Solid-state lighting is five to six times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and up to 1.5 times as efficient as CFLs. Intelligent lighting controls can be used in conjunction with some forms of efficient lighting, particularly LEDs, which can be dimmed or turned on/off without loss of equipment lifespan or performance. Intelligent lighting controls use environmental information (e.g., occupancy, ambient light levels) to automatically adjust light levels and save energy. At each lighting fixture, sensors detect light levels and feed the information to controllers that adjust the lighting based on previously set goals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report. 

HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems consist of air conditioners, heat pumps, boilers, furnaces, rooftop units, and chillers, as well as associated air handlers, ductwork, and water and steam piping. HVAC systems represent a significant portion of a building’s overall energy use. Improvements in efficiency derive from various subsystem technological innovations, such as variable speed drives (which reduce electricity use by electric motors) and increased heat exchanger surface area (which increase overall energy transfer from the fuel to the conditioned space). More advanced HVAC systems also have sensors and controls that communicate with energy management systems and other intelligent controls to further reduce energy usage.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report. 

A ground-source heat pump is a heating and cooling system that exchanges heat between the earth and the interior of a building. It relies on the fact that ground temperatures tend to be constant throughout the year – this allows it to achieve higher efficiencies than air-source heat pumps, and also makes it suitable for any climate. In the winter, it transfers heat stored in the ground into a building, and in the summer, the system works like an air conditioner, transferring heat out of a building and into the ground. Ground-source heat pumps require vertical wells or horizontal loop fields to be installed to enable the heat transfer to occur. Ground-source heat pumps can also provide domestic hot water from desuperheaters, one of the heat pump’s components, and heat water for free in the summer.

D.C. is buzzing about the newly announced EPA carbon emission rule. Bright and early Monday morning, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy announced the draft rule, which affects carbon emissions from existing power plants. Over the next 120 days, EPA will be accepting comments on the proposal, which will be finalized in June of next year. The draft rule sets an emission rate standard for each state to meet by 2030, and states must submit implementation plans to EPA. AEE has long seen the much-anticipated EPA rule as an opportunity for the country to modernize the electric power system and, with the inclusion of advanced energy technologies among the options for states to use for compliance, an opportunity for the advanced energy industry.